Had Accident At Work - Company Admit Liability - Can I claim for time

geri1965_2

Yes I am. If you don't want to waste your time, get a solicitor to do it for you.

Crazy_Jamie

vaio wrote: »

My time is worth £20/hr to me and twice that to my employer, are you seriously suggesting that I should get involved in a protracted correspondence over a number of weeks for £50 either in a personal or professional context?

She is, and she's right. Compensation in relation to things like this usually dealt with by way of an arbitrary figure exactly as geri suggested.

All of the members advising you to instruct a solicitor are quite correct. Your talk of an illness rather than an injury suggests some kind of chemical exposure or similar, in which case you really do need a specialist solicitor to represent you. You stand little to no chance of accurately valuing damages in a personal injury case in any event, but even less in a case potentially involving industrial disease. As liability has been admitted you will have no issues instructing a solicitor on the basis of a Conditional Fee Agreement ('no win no fee'), and this is something that you should seek to do as soon as possible.

vaio

I think you are both wrong, general hassle & inconvenience might be compensated by way of an arbitrary sum tagged on to a claim but where a person is reasonably acting as a litigant in person (as the Op seems to have been although hopefully just as a precursor to proper representation as suggested by just about everyone who has contributed to this thread) then providing he documents his work properly his costs should be recoverable along with any other reasonable out of pocket expenses.

It looks like rule 48.6 of the CPR covers this situation or have I misread it?

Crazy_Jamie

vaio wrote: »

It looks like rule 48.6 of the CPR covers this situation or have I misread it?

You have not misread it literally, but are perhaps missing its practical application in this case. The issue is that proceedings are yet to be issued. If the case settles prior to issue it is highly likely that the employer in this case will not be willing to pay costs on the basis of CPR r.48.6, and will deal with it by way of an arbitrary figure. If that is not something that the OP is happy with, his only option would be to issue costs only proceedings.

Personally I cannot see many judges being impressed by a litigant in person pursuing costs only proceedings after reaching a settlement out of court, but even in the event that he is successful it will be at the end of a process that will both be taxing and time consuming. In any event this issue would be far from straight forward if it were to go before a court- it is not as simple as asking the OP how much time he has spent on this and reimbursing him. The use and efficiency of that time would be called into question throughout the course of negotiations between the parties, and that is something that would potentially bring with it detailed scrutiny and extended argument. Costs is a specialist issue even within the legal sphere, and only in exceptional circumstances (if ever) would I recommend that a litigant in person go to such lengths to recover his or her pre litigation costs.

Which is why I stated that in situations such as this (i.e. litigants in person negotiating a pre action settlement) these sorts of costs are dealt with by way of an arbitrary sum. Because, irrespective of CPR r.48.6, they are. Consequently if the OP does go on to secure a pre action settlement without solicitors (which none of us have recommended in any event) and the employer is willing to deal with the issue of costs on anything other than an arbitrary basis, he should count himself very fortunate.